Biomaterial Database

Antifungal drug resistance: evolution, mechanisms and impact. 2018

Nicole M Revie, and Kali R Iyer, and Nicole Robbins, and Leah E Cowen

Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1M1, Canada.

Microorganisms have a remarkable capacity to evolve resistance to antimicrobial agents, threatening the efficacy of the limited arsenal of antimicrobials and becoming a dire public health crisis. This is of particular concern for fungal pathogens, which cause devastating invasive infections with treatment options limited to only three major classes of antifungal drugs. The paucity of antifungals with clinical utility is in part due to close evolutionary relationships between these eukaryotic pathogens and their human hosts, which limits the unique targets to be exploited therapeutically. This review highlights the mechanisms by which fungal pathogens of humans evolve resistance to antifungal drugs, which provide crucial insights to enable development of novel therapeutic strategies to thwart drug resistance and combat fungal infectious disease.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D009181	Mycoses	Diseases caused by FUNGI.	Fungus Diseases,Fungal Diseases,Fungal Infections,Fungus Infections,Disease, Fungal,Disease, Fungus,Diseases, Fungal,Diseases, Fungus,Fungal Disease,Fungal Infection,Fungus Disease,Fungus Infection,Infection, Fungal,Infection, Fungus,Infections, Fungal,Infections, Fungus
D005075	Biological Evolution	The process of cumulative change over successive generations through which organisms acquire their distinguishing morphological and physiological characteristics.	Evolution, Biological
D005658	Fungi	A kingdom of eukaryotic, heterotrophic organisms that live parasitically as saprobes, including MUSHROOMS; YEASTS; smuts, molds, etc. They reproduce either sexually or asexually, and have life cycles that range from simple to complex. Filamentous fungi, commonly known as molds, refer to those that grow as multicellular colonies.	Fungi, Filamentous,Molds,Filamentous Fungi,Filamentous Fungus,Fungus,Fungus, Filamentous,Mold
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000935	Antifungal Agents	Substances that destroy fungi by suppressing their ability to grow or reproduce. They differ from FUNGICIDES, INDUSTRIAL because they defend against fungi present in human or animal tissues.	Anti-Fungal Agents,Antifungal Agent,Fungicides, Therapeutic,Antibiotics, Antifungal,Therapeutic Fungicides,Agent, Antifungal,Anti Fungal Agents,Antifungal Antibiotics
D025141	Drug Resistance, Fungal	The ability of fungi to resist or to become tolerant to chemotherapeutic agents, antifungal agents, or antibiotics. This resistance may be acquired through gene mutation.	Antibiotic Resistance, Fungal,Antifungal Drug Resistance,Resistance, Antifungal Drug